Middletown transcript., 1887-12-01

knew him to shy or turn out of the
road for anything but a loaded team.
He was the best fox for hunting .pur-
poses that I ever had. Every spring I
would sprinkle him with Scotch snuff
and put him away in the bureau till
fall. He would then come out bright
and clipper. He was always ready to
enter into the chase with all the chic
and embonpoint of regular Kenasha,
and nothing pleased him better than
to be about eight miles in advance Of
my thoroughbred pack in full cry,
scampering Gross country, while
stretched back few miles behind the
dogs followed a pale young man and
his fancee, each riding horse that
had set down two hard on its tail some
time and driven it into his system.
about six joints.
Some hunters, who are madly and
passionately devoted to the sport, leap
their horses over fences, moats, donjon
keeps, hedges and currant bushes with
utter sang freid, and the Wild nnfetter-'
ed toot ongsomble ofa brass band. 1t
is one of the most spirited and touch
full OF sights to see young fox-hunter
going home through the cleaning with
a full cry in one hand and his pancreas
in the other.
Some like to be in at the death, as it
is called, and it is certainly laudable
ambition. To see 120 dogs hold out
against a ferocious fox weighing nine
pounds to watch the brave little band
of dogs and whippers-in and horses
with sawed-off tails, making up il her..
oism what they lack in numbers, sue
ceed at last in Kidding the country of
the ferocious brute which has long
been the acknowledged foe of the hu-
man race, is indeed q fine sight.
We are too apt to regard fox.hunting
merely as relaxation, a source of
pleasure, and the result of desire to
do the way people do in the novels
which we steal from English authors !;
but this is not all. To successfully
hunt fox, to jumpfencess 'cross coun-
try like an unruly steer, is no child's
play. To ride all day on very hot
and restless saddle, trying to lope
while your horse is trotting, giving
your friends a good view of the coun-
try between yourself and your horse,
then leaping stone walls, breaking
your collar bone in four places, pulling
out one eye and leaving it hanging on
plum tree, or going home at night
with your transverse colon wrapped
around the pommel of your saddle and
your liver in an old newspaper, re-
quires the greatest courage.
Too much stress cannot be placed on
the costume worn while fox-hunting,
and in fact, that is, after all, the life and
soul of the chase. For ladies nothing
locks better than q elese-ftting sjaehets
sewed together with thread of the
same shade and skirt. Neat-ittingI
cavalry boots and plug hat complete
the costume. Then, with a hue in one
hand and cry in the other, she; is
prepared to mount. Lead the horse
up to stone wall or freight car and
spring lightly into the saddle. with q
glad cry. A freight car is the best
thing from which to mount a horse,
but it is too unwieldly and freqently
delays the chase. For-this reason, too
much luggage should not be carried on
a fox-hunt. Some gentlemen carry a
change of canes, neatly concealed in a
shawl strap, but even this may be dis
pensed with. g
For gentlemen a dark, fonr-button
cutaway coat, with neat, loose-fttine
white panties, will generally scare a
fox into convulsions, SO that he may be
easily killed with a club. A short-
wasted plug hat may be. worn also, if
order to distinguish the hunter from
the whipper-in, who wears a baseball
cap. The only fox-hunting I have
ever done was on board an impetuous,
tough bitted, fore-and-aft horse that
had emotional insanity. I was dressed
in swallow-tailed coat, waistcoat OF
Scotch plaid Turkish towelling and
a pair of close-ftting breeches of Ell.
quette tucked into my boot-tops, As
! was away from home at the time
and could not reach my own steed I
was obliged to mount a spirited steed
with high, intellectual hips, one white
eye and big red nostril that you could
set Shanghai hen in. This horse, as
soon as the pack broke into full cry,
climbed over a fence that had Wrought.
iron briers on it, lit in corn-feld,
stabbed his hind leg through sere
1 ca
yellow pumpkin, which he wore the
rest of the day, with seven yards Of
pumpkin vine streaming out behind,
and away we dashed 'cross country. I
remained mounted, not because en-.
/ joyed it, for I did not, but because ]
dreaded to dismount. I hated to gel
off in pieces. If I can't get off a
horse's back as whole, I would rather
adhere to the horse. will adhere that
I did so.
| We did not see the fox, but we saw
almost everything else. I remember
among other things, of riding through
| hothouse and how 1 enjoyed it
A morning scamper through a conser.
J, vatory when the syringes and Jonquil:
and Jack roses lie cuddled up together
in their little beds, is a thing to re.
member and look back to and pay for
To stand knee-deep in glass and gladio.
lao to snelI the mashed and mussed ur